Fine Art Photography

Tag Archives: film

I finished a roll of Fuji Provia last Thursday and dropped it off for processing on Friday. Too bad it’ll take a week and has to leave town for the job to be done, but oh well. What can you expect for E6 processing in this digital age? Anyway, I have quite a few PAD’s on that roll, all shot around town using the Olympus Trip 35. I can’t wait to see how the shots turned out. I’ll post a few after I get them scanned…

I loaded some film into the Olympus Trip 35 this morning; Fuji Provia 100. David has been shooting some in a new camera he found on eb*y and it gave me the itch. I had a batch in the fridge from a few months ago so I loaded it up this morning and stopped on my way to work for a couple shots.

I’m in a quandary when shooting film these days. I find myself trying to change the way I shoot and my subject matter. I don’t know why, but when I’m shooting color, I start looking for bright colorful scenes; when shooting b/w I look for contrast-y scenes. I completely avoid my usual thinking and I shoot like I have someone watching over my shoulder. I think I see some style surfacing from my last few years of shooting digital, but when that film camera gets in my hands I lose my perspective. Hmm… They say you should dance like no one is watching, I say you should shoot that same way, too. I’ll try to keep this in check.

Last weekend I processed a roll of HP5+ that I’ve been carrying around with me since March in an Olympus Trip 35. The camera was a gift from my pbase friend DM, who’d found it on ebay and cleaned it up nicely. I’ve been slowly shooting the roll ever since the camera arrived and finally finished it off here a couple weeks ago. Last saturday evening I spent some time scanning the negs but I was unhappy with the results (I don’t like the software’s automatic crop feature) I was getting with the Epson software that came with the scanner. So I downloaded a trial version of Vuescan ,which then gave me WAY too many options, but I liked the control it offered. Ah, there’s always two sides to a coin, no? So I purchased said software and proceeded to re-scan these same negatives multiple times during the past week, working late into the evening. Each time I was unhappy with the results but each time I learned something about the process. I let all that ferment in my head for a couple days and last night I scanned the negs yet another time.

A couple things I learned. First, I was rather excited about Vuescan’s ability to output a raw file straight from the CCD on the scanner. Very cool! I could put this right into Lightroom and tweak it there. But I was unhappy with the fact that the Mac OS wouldn’t give me a preview of the file in the finder. If you wanted to see what a photo was you had to open it… And, as my usual work flow on film scans is to open it in Photoshop and do a cleanup/despot, the raw didn’t really afford me much as I then would end up with a psd or tiff file, thus doubling my file storage for each picture. So after all this, and teaching myself the Vuescan software and interface well enough to get a passable scan, I opted to go with a tiff file, like I was doing before Vuescan, and then stay with my original workflow: scan, tiff, photoshop for cleanup, then import to Lightroom for any levels adjustment.

I got all the chemicals mixed up last weekend. Processed some 35mm HP5+ in D76. The temps were almost too warm, right at 75º. I was a bit nervous about that and about developing film myself after all these years, but everything worked nicely. I hung the negs up in the bathroom to dry and they turned out very nice. I still need to run my roll of 120 from the Yashica Mat 124…

I tried to save some money by putting my chems in some 1g plastic water jugs. In the process I learned that the screw caps aren’t that secure and the bottle bodies were a little too flimsy, so I ordered three more proper brown developer jugs from Calumet.

The scanner I ordered arrived in time to scan those negs I developed last weekend, but alas, there were problems. When I was all set up and scanning, I found a fiber or hair somewhere inside the optics was marring every single scan. It was very frustrating. And this is the second scanner I’ve purchased from Epson that had dust bits or spots on the inside of the glass platen. I tried to rectify the situation through the customer service website but that ended with me talking with a service person from a contractor… I opted to return the scanner instead. The replacement should be here by the fourth. Kudos to Amazon.com for making that process easy…

Which brings me to dust. I’ve almost come to terms with the fact that our home is a giant dust mop. I can’t seem to outrun the stuff. Scanning negatives means being very vigilant. Even moving to another room with no traffic and away from the dogs (the biggest factor!) only marginally helps. Another contributor is the very hot and dry conditions where we live. There’s just not enough humidity to keep the dust down. I think only a NASA style clean room would help. I wonder how difficult that would be to build?

I bought a Yashica Electro 35 GSN off of ebay and it arrived a couple weeks ago. Physically the camera looks to be in good shape, the shutter opens, etc. The battery compartment had a bit of acid leak inside. I cleaned that up with some white vinegar. There seems to be a bad electrical contact that will require some work to figure out. I’ll have to open it up to see what I can do. It may only be some bad contacts at the battery. There seems to be plenty of info on the internet about what to do.

At work, we’ve lost an assistant and we’re a week into interviews for a replacement. I’m still hoping to find someone with some production chops so I won’t be training them for two years. Almost everyone we’ve had do the job these last few years needed considerable training to get up to speed. Regardless, we have one last interview on monday and then we can make a decision.

I spent the morning finishing two rolls of Ilford HP5+, one in the K1000 and another in the YashicaMat. This’ll be the first of my own film to run through the Yashica, the “found roll” not turning out all that well after I goofed it up by opening the camera while loaded.

Yesterday I made a trip out to Hart park for some pictures and shot half the 120 roll, today I headed in to the downtown area and finished the roll. I also stopped at Jefferson park to finish the roll in the K1000. Now if the danged developing stuff I ordered would get here, I’d process that film.

I put the scanning of the Kodachrome A Day pictures on hold for the time being. I’m unhappy with the quality of the scans I’m getting from the scanner I purchased. Yesterday I ordered a different scanner, one more suited for different size film. The previous would only do 35mm film stock, which at the time I thought would be all that I needed, but couldn’t accommodate the large format camera negs. On top of which, everything I scanned had spots from the dirt on the INSIDE of the scanner. After much fussing, I was able to get that scanner open and attempt to clean the inside but by that time the bloom was off that rose…

In other news, the spare bathroom has it’s coat of primer, it’s two coats of “natural linen” and a new light kit installed. Worked on that on Saturday and then finished it on Monday. Cathi seems to be very happy with the results. You would think it would be a quick job for that small space but there was so many corners that needed cutting in. Next up we need to decide on some flooring and get to ordering a new vanity and toilet, but it’ll have to wait for now. I need to still paint the livingroom and both bedrooms, but not while I’m on vacation.

Let’s see. First off, the house is a shambles and has been that way since we had the work crews in to put insulation in our walls, and then patch the walls. Everything is pulled in to the center of the rooms and the outside walls all have plaster on them. They need a coat of paint, but I’m busy for another weekend with the preps for, and the celebration of, Mother’s day. At least we’re not hosting at our house this year. There’s no way that was going to come together in time and too many people are attending now, so we’re just doing the food. In the meantime, the house stays torn up…

I was busy two weekends in a row with family stuff, namely a wedding (which I shot) , a barbeque at my sister’s and a photo shoot for a nephew who’s graduating from high school. The shoots both went well. Actually they went better than I’d hoped and the 30D worked perfectly for both. Not sure I would have done as well with the DRebel.

The Kodachrome A Day project is done and the slides have returned. I’ve only loaded the first roll up to the project gallery, four rolls await scanning and upload. Maybe I’ll get to that this weekend…

I’ve stepped into the world of medium format cameras with the ebay purchase of a YashicaMat 124. The camera looks to be in good condition and I ordered some rolls of Ilford HP5 to run through for fun. I’ve also ordered a new battery and adapter for the camera as they don’t make the mercury batteries for these cameras anymore. Last night I was reading the manual and looking over the camera when I decided to investigate the inside to see how it looked. I opened the door and saw there was a roll of film already loaded! I was sitting on the end of the couch by a lamp so I quickly closed the door. Hmmm. Film already loaded. And partially exposed. It looked like there were about four pictures already run. I couldn’t tell anything more about the film. I decided on the way to work to stop and finish the roll. Opening the back had reset the camera and I had to roll off some film to get it re-cocked. I’m not sure if there was even any film left at that point, but I shot a few miscellaneous pictures to use up what might be left until I heard the take up spool spin inside. When I removed the film, it looked to be Kodak 400 ASA PMC. I googled it this morning and it’s not even made anymore… I wonder if anyone can process it here in town? It says C-41 on the roll…

I’ve been mulling the idea of a new camera for a while now. A few weeks ago I started having trouble with my 300D and it pushed me to make a serious effort and do some research. I was torn between the Canon 5D and the 30D. Both good cameras, but the 5D is a whole other level in price for me. I don’t think I can justify that kind of expense for a camera at this time so I decided on the 30D. Much more affordable.

As I was ordering the camera on amazon, I grabbed a couple packs of Polaroid film for the 450: some 664 (ISO100 b/w) and 669 (also ISO100 color).

I’m still thinking of setting up some developing gear and materials after shooting some Ilford HP5+ through the K1000 SE I won on ebay. I had the local camera shop develop the pics overnight so I could check the function of the camera last week. Everything looked good. The price of developing a few rolls would soon pay for the chemicals and the tank and bottles are pretty inexpensive. I’d like to have a camera loaded with b/w film at hand but that will have to wait till I’m finished with:

Kodachrome 64 A DAY project. I finished roll four today and then loaded the fifth into the SE and swapped leses from my standard K1000. I’m sticking with the 28mm wide angle lens for the total of this project. It’s been a fun project shooting film again after all these years. The only drawback has been the double-duty Photo-A-Day shooting in both Kodachrome and digital. I’m not sure I’ll have much more than a handful of decent shots when I’m done, and I’m afraid I’ve taken too many pictures of flowers in K64, but we’ll see…